Writing about random topics

I’m not as clever as I think

I like to think I’m a pretty smart guy. It’s not completely true, but I like to think it nonetheless.

This month in National Geographic, the cover page is entitled “The War on Science.” It lists five examples:

Climate Change does not exist. This is something I used to think about a decade ago, or that the fears were overblown, but now I completely disagree and think climate change is a huge deal. It’s mostly people who are politically opposed to it that still deny it.

Evolution never happened. I didn’t used to believe in evolution during my teen years, but I have since 100% reversed that position. Evolution explains a lot, biology doesn’t make sense without it.

The moon landing was fake. I don’t know anybody who ever believed this, but I guess there are still some people out there who do.

Vaccinations can lead to autism. This is something that is getting a lot of press coverage recently, and criticism, because of the recent breakout of measles at Disneyland. It’s upper-middle class people who believe this, people who are educated. And this bad because it weakens herd immunity and harms their own kids.

Genetically modified food is evil. And here’s where I have to stop being so smug. For years I never cared about GMO foods, but after moving to the left coast I admit my thinking started to get infected with this. But as it turns out, most experts believe that GMO food is safe. There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of studies done and none of the definitively demonstrate that GMO food is bad for you or dangerous. The thinking is “But it might be!” but the science says “Well, probably not.”

So, I got four out of five. I’d like to pat myself on the back but I can’t. As someone with a science background, I should know better.